The American Dream: The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States of America in which democratic ideals are perceived as a promise of prosperity for its people. In the American Dream, first expressed by James Truslow Adams in 1931, citizens of every rank feel that they can achieve a "better, richer, and happier life." -Wikipedia
The American Dream is an ideal for all people, they want to live a better, richer, and happier life. Everyone has their own form of their American Dream, and they tried to achieve this by setting goals. I think that Gatsby represents this dream very well with his weekly parties and his wealth. The text says, “There was music from my neighbor’s house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars. At high tide in the afternoon I watched his guests diving from the tower of his raft, or taking the sun on the hot sand of his beach while his two motor-boats slit the waters of the Sound, drawing aquaplanes over cataracts of foam. On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains” (The Great Gatsby/ pg. 39). I think that this is a great example of the American dream. Every week Gatsby opens his home for these huge parties. This shows that he is really rich and famous because there are a lot of starts that come to his parties. It also shows great freedom because people just come and go, and, for the most part, people are not invited, they just show up. The American Dream is shown here because people are having fun, enjoying a better and happier life all the while in the company of a very rich, generous host, Mr. Gatsby.
The book condemns this part of Gatsby's American Dream. While his parties are the place to be every weekend, that is all that these people tend to focus on. All of the people that come to these parties are judged upon greatly by Nick, the narrator of the book. At the beginning of chapter four in The Great Gatsby Nick sits there and explains all of the people that had come to the parties over the summer one year. His comments were very judgemental and what we heard about the people that had partying as their american dream were not very kind comments.
The American dream has stayed similar since Mr. Gatsby's time. People love to party, and the dream of fame and success is still large. Many people think that their American Dream is just like Gatsby's, to be rich, and well connected, and to have great parties every weekend. I think that the American dream has also changed, because people are more mature than that and they have different dreams, like having a family, or being a successful businessman, or to be on the top of the corporate ladder. Instead of partying on the weekends they want to reach these goals. I think that the modern goals are more appropriate for this time period because buisness is important, and people would want to be successful instead of seeing people on the weekend.
Nick and Jordan's relationship Nick first meets Jordan Baker when he has gone to Tom and Daisy Buchanan’s House in the first chapter. During this time Tom and Daisy are trying to set him up with Jordan hoping that he will calm her down and keep her at home and be a person like them instead of partying on the weekends. He then see’s her again in chapter three when he goes to one of Mr. Gatsby’s parties. After the party is over the text states, “For a while I lost sight of Jordan Baker, and then in mid-summer I found her again. At first I was flattered to go places with her, because she was a golf champion, and everyone knew her name. Then it was something more. I wasn’t actually in love, but I felt a sort of tender curiosity” (The Great Gatsby/57). Jordan and Nick got together to talk about Mr. Gatsby’s request to have Daisy over for tea, and during this time the book says, “It was dark now, and as we dipped under a little bridge I put my arm around Jordan’s golden shoulder and drew her toward me and asked her to dinner. Suddenly I wasn’t thinking of Daisy and Gatsby any more, but of this clan, hard, limited person, who dealt in universal skepticism, and who leaned back jauntily just within the circle of my arm. A phrase began to beat in my ears with a sort of heady excitement: ‘There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy, and the tired’” (The Great Gatsby/ 79). Later during the book Jordan and Nick have a conversation over the phone that starts with talking about how she wants to see him again, and how he doesn't want to and it ends with an abrubt click of the phone and the conversation is over. In chapter nine we discovered that Nick and Jordan meet again before Nick moves and she confronts him about a conversation that they had in the beginning of the book. "'Oh, and do you remember'--she added--'a conversation we had once about driving a car?' 'Why--not exactally.' 'you said a bad driver was only safe until she met another bad driver? Well, I met another bad driver, didn't I? I mean it was creless of me to make such a wrong guess. I thought you were rather an honest, straightforward person. I though it was your secret pride.' 'I'm thirty,' I said. 'I'm five years too old to lie to myself and call it honor.' She didn't answer. Angry, and half in love with her, and tremendously sorry, I turned away" (The Great Gatsby/ pg. 170. This shows that their relationship is over and that it is time that they both move on.
Gatsby's past
Gatsby tries to recapture his past relationship with Daisy throughout the entire novel. She was eighteen when their relationship first started; it was perhaps, as some would call it, ‘true love’. “ ‘The officer looked at Daisy while she was speaking, in a way that every young girl wants to be looked at some time, and because it seemed romantic’ ”… (Fitzgerald 75). However he was drafted back into the war and Daisy was forced to move on. Soon she married Tom Buchanan and settled in Long Island. Gatsby found Daisy had moved to the East Egg, and he soon moved to the West Egg in hopes to regain their long lost relationship. “ ‘Can’t repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously. ‘Why off course you can!’ ….’I am going to fix everything just the way it was before’, he said nodding determinedly. ‘She’ll see’. He talked a lot about the past, I gathered that he wanted to recover something,”…(Fitzgerald 110). Obviously Gatsby wished to recapture his relationship with Daisy before he entered the war, however he was unsuccessful. “ ‘Jus tell him the truth-that you never loved him-and it’s all wiped out forever’ ….she hesitated…’I never loved him’. She said, with perceptible reluctance.’ “(Fitzgerald 132). Near the end of the book, Daisy hints that she wants to get involved with Gatsby, however quickly changes her mind back to Tom. “He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you.’ After she had obliterated four years with that sentence they could decide upon the more practical measures to be taken.”(Fitzgerald 109). “She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved anyone except me!” (Fitzgerald 130). Gatsby will have to live with his choices, and allow Daisy to be happy, which is to be with Tom. I often think of my past choices, people, and events. However, the past cannot be revived, as Gatsby proves in the novel. I believe people should put the past in the past, and focus on our future choices, people, and events. After all, isn’t that what drives us to live another day? If Gatsby would have given up his hopes of Daisy, he could have concentrated on future successful relationships. This is a major lesson all people should take away from The Great Gatsby.
Gatsby vs. Tom and Daisy
Gatsby inherited a great deal of money, however lives on the less-fashionable side of Long Island. Never the less, he had a huge house, multiple servants, nice cars, and hosted numerous high-class parties. “There was music from my neighbor’s house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and stars. …And on Mondays eight servants, including an extra gardener, toiled all day with mops and scrubbing-brushes and hammers and garden-shears, repairing the ravages of the night before.” (39 Fitzgerald). Surprisingly, Tom and Daisy both are wealthy, and perhaps even more, than Gatsby. Tom was a retired well-known football player, and his family was enormously wealthy. Daisy also came from a wealthy family, which is what attracted Gatsby in the first place. “She vanished into her rich house, into her rich, full life…. and of Daisy, gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor (149-150). Tom and Daisy lived in the East Egg, which is the more fashionable part of Long Island. “Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water”…(Fitzgerald 5). The geography of Long Island also impacts the social and economic aspects. The West Egg is crammed with heavily rented apartments, each having a personality of its own. Thousands of people rent out these apartments every season, and house multiple hotels. This affects the social aspect of the West Egg because it clearly attracts many tourists. Across the bay, is the spacious East Egg, where sparkling houses are surrounded by perfectly cut lawns. This is more expensive, and is home of many high-class partiers, which is the modern day American Dream.
Gatsby and Daisy from an early movie version of The Great Gatsby.
Finding happiness in wealth is like looking at a carnival scenery. It seems happy and bright, but up close its dirty, and disappointing.
The American Dream:
The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States of America in which democratic ideals are perceived as a promise of prosperity for its people. In the American Dream, first expressed by James Truslow Adams in 1931, citizens of every rank feel that they can achieve a "better, richer, and happier life." -Wikipedia
The American Dream is an ideal for all people, they want to live a better, richer, and happier life. Everyone has their own form of their American Dream, and they tried to achieve this by setting goals. I think that Gatsby represents this dream very well with his weekly parties and his wealth. The text says, “There was music from my neighbor’s house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars. At high tide in the afternoon I watched his guests diving from the tower of his raft, or taking the sun on the hot sand of his beach while his two motor-boats slit the waters of the Sound, drawing aquaplanes over cataracts of foam. On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains” (The Great Gatsby/ pg. 39). I think that this is a great example of the American dream. Every week Gatsby opens his home for these huge parties. This shows that he is really rich and famous because there are a lot of starts that come to his parties. It also shows great freedom because people just come and go, and, for the most part, people are not invited, they just show up. The American Dream is shown here because people are having fun, enjoying a better and happier life all the while in the company of a very rich, generous host, Mr. Gatsby.
The book condemns this part of Gatsby's American Dream. While his parties are the place to be every weekend, that is all that these people tend to focus on. All of the people that come to these parties are judged upon greatly by Nick, the narrator of the book. At the beginning of chapter four in The Great Gatsby Nick sits there and explains all of the people that had come to the parties over the summer one year. His comments were very judgemental and what we heard about the people that had partying as their american dream were not very kind comments.
The American dream has stayed similar since Mr. Gatsby's time. People love to party, and the dream of fame and success is still large. Many people think that their American Dream is just like Gatsby's, to be rich, and well connected, and to have great parties every weekend. I think that the American dream has also changed, because people are more mature than that and they have different dreams, like having a family, or being a successful businessman, or to be on the top of the corporate ladder. Instead of partying on the weekends they want to reach these goals. I think that the modern goals are more appropriate for this time period because buisness is important, and people would want to be successful instead of seeing people on the weekend.
Nick and Jordan's relationship
Nick first meets Jordan Baker when he has gone to Tom and Daisy Buchanan’s House in the first chapter. During this time Tom and Daisy are trying to set him up with Jordan hoping that he will calm her down and keep her at home and be a person like them instead of partying on the weekends. He then see’s her again in chapter three when he goes to one of Mr. Gatsby’s parties. After the party is over the text states, “For a while I lost sight of Jordan Baker, and then in mid-summer I found her again. At first I was flattered to go places with her, because she was a golf champion, and everyone knew her name. Then it was something more. I wasn’t actually in love, but I felt a sort of tender curiosity” (The Great Gatsby/57). Jordan and Nick got together to talk about Mr. Gatsby’s request to have Daisy over for tea, and during this time the book says, “It was dark now, and as we dipped under a little bridge I put my arm around Jordan’s golden shoulder and drew her toward me and asked her to dinner. Suddenly I wasn’t thinking of Daisy and Gatsby any more, but of this clan, hard, limited person, who dealt in universal skepticism, and who leaned back jauntily just within the circle of my arm. A phrase began to beat in my ears with a sort of heady excitement: ‘There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy, and the tired’” (The Great Gatsby/ 79). Later during the book Jordan and Nick have a conversation over the phone that starts with talking about how she wants to see him again, and how he doesn't want to and it ends with an abrubt click of the phone and the conversation is over. In chapter nine we discovered that Nick and Jordan meet again before Nick moves and she confronts him about a conversation that they had in the beginning of the book. "'Oh, and do you remember'--she added--'a conversation we had once about driving a car?' 'Why--not exactally.' 'you said a bad driver was only safe until she met another bad driver? Well, I met another bad driver, didn't I? I mean it was creless of me to make such a wrong guess. I thought you were rather an honest, straightforward person. I though it was your secret pride.' 'I'm thirty,' I said. 'I'm five years too old to lie to myself and call it honor.' She didn't answer. Angry, and half in love with her, and tremendously sorry, I turned away" (The Great Gatsby/ pg. 170. This shows that their relationship is over and that it is time that they both move on.
Gatsby's past
Gatsby tries to recapture his past relationship with Daisy throughout the entire novel. She was eighteen when their relationship first started; it was perhaps, as some would call it, ‘true love’. “ ‘The officer looked at Daisy while she was speaking, in a way that every young girl wants to be looked at some time, and because it seemed romantic’ ”… (Fitzgerald 75). However he was drafted back into the war and Daisy was forced to move on. Soon she married Tom Buchanan and settled in Long Island. Gatsby found Daisy had moved to the East Egg, and he soon moved to the West Egg in hopes to regain their long lost relationship. “ ‘Can’t repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously. ‘Why off course you can!’ ….’I am going to fix everything just the way it was before’, he said nodding determinedly. ‘She’ll see’. He talked a lot about the past, I gathered that he wanted to recover something,”…(Fitzgerald 110). Obviously Gatsby wished to recapture his relationship with Daisy before he entered the war, however he was unsuccessful. “ ‘Jus tell him the truth-that you never loved him-and it’s all wiped out forever’ ….she hesitated…’I never loved him’. She said, with perceptible reluctance.’ “(Fitzgerald 132). Near the end of the book, Daisy hints that she wants to get involved with Gatsby, however quickly changes her mind back to Tom. “He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you.’ After she had obliterated four years with that sentence they could decide upon the more practical measures to be taken.”(Fitzgerald 109). “She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved anyone except me!” (Fitzgerald 130). Gatsby will have to live with his choices, and allow Daisy to be happy, which is to be with Tom. I often think of my past choices, people, and events. However, the past cannot be revived, as Gatsby proves in the novel. I believe people should put the past in the past, and focus on our future choices, people, and events. After all, isn’t that what drives us to live another day? If Gatsby would have given up his hopes of Daisy, he could have concentrated on future successful relationships. This is a major lesson all people should take away from The Great Gatsby.
Gatsby vs. Tom and Daisy
Gatsby inherited a great deal of money, however lives on the less-fashionable side of Long Island. Never the less, he had a huge house, multiple servants, nice cars, and hosted numerous high-class parties. “There was music from my neighbor’s house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and stars. …And on Mondays eight servants, including an extra gardener, toiled all day with mops and scrubbing-brushes and hammers and garden-shears, repairing the ravages of the night before.” (39 Fitzgerald). Surprisingly, Tom and Daisy both are wealthy, and perhaps even more, than Gatsby. Tom was a retired well-known football player, and his family was enormously wealthy. Daisy also came from a wealthy family, which is what attracted Gatsby in the first place. “She vanished into her rich house, into her rich, full life…. and of Daisy, gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor (149-150). Tom and Daisy lived in the East Egg, which is the more fashionable part of Long Island. “Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water”…(Fitzgerald 5). The geography of Long Island also impacts the social and economic aspects. The West Egg is crammed with heavily rented apartments, each having a personality of its own. Thousands of people rent out these apartments every season, and house multiple hotels. This affects the social aspect of the West Egg because it clearly attracts many tourists. Across the bay, is the spacious East Egg, where sparkling houses are surrounded by perfectly cut lawns. This is more expensive, and is home of many high-class partiers, which is the modern day American Dream.
Works CitedFitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1925. Print.Getty Images. 1999. Web. 17 Mar. 2010. http://cache2.asset-cache.net/xc/56481358.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=45B0EB3381F7834D112ADD51782DC3A65F6C21997B503C5476A1C53391327B7B. Be Heard Community. Gloucester Times, 2010. Web. 17 Mar. 2010. http://scienceroll.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/carnival.jpghttp://scienceroll.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/carnival.jpg.Daisy and Gatsby
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